BONN, Germany – In Nature, 21 leading scientists today prescribe ways to use food systems to halt and reverse land degradation, underlining that doing so must become a top global priority to mitigate climate change and stop biodiversity loss.
The article breaks new ground by quantifying the impact by 2050 of reducing food waste by 75% and maximising sustainable ocean-based food production, measures that alone could spare an area larger than Africa.
According to the paper, “Food systems have not yet been fully incorporated into intergovernmental agreements, nor do they receive sufficient focus in current strategies to address land degradation. Rapid, integrated reforms focused on global food systems, however, can move land health from crisis to recovery and secure a healthier, more stable planet for all.”
The authors underline especially the importance of halting food waste and sustainably managing lands, and suggest an ambitious but achievable target of 50% land restoration by 2050 (currently 30% by 2030).
And, they emphasise, the measures outlined would enormously co-benefit the climate, biodiversity, and global health.
Says lead author Fernando T. Maestre of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia: “This paper presents a bold, integrated set of actions to tackle land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change together, as well as a clear pathway for implementing them by 2050.”
“By transforming food systems, restoring degraded land, harnessing the potential of sustainable seafood, and fostering cooperation across nations and sectors, we can ‘bend the curve’ and reverse land degradation while advancing towards goals of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and other global agreements.”
Adds co-author Barron J. Orr, UNCCD’s Chief Scientist: “Once soils lose fertility, water tables deplete, and biodiversity is lost, restoring the land becomes exponentially more expensive. Ongoing rates of land degradation contribute to a cascade of mounting global challenges, including food and water insecurity, forced relocation and population migration, social unrest, and economic inequality.”
“Land degradation isn’t just a rural issue; it affects the food on all our plates, the air we breathe, and the stability of the world we live in. This isn’t about saving the environment; it’s about securing our shared future.”
Key recommendations:
1. Restoring 50% of degraded land through sustainable land management practices would correspond to the restoration of 3 Mkm² of cropland and 10 Mkm² of non-cropland, a total of 13 Mkm².
Land restoration must involve the people who live on and manage the land — especially Indigenous Peoples, smallholder farmers, women, and other vulnerable people and communities, the article says.
2. Reduce food waste by 75%: An estimated 56.5 Mkm² of agricultural land (cropland and rangelands) is used to produce food, and roughly 33% of all food produced is wasted (14% lost post-harvest at farms; 19% at the retail, food service and household stages).
Reducing food waste by 75%, therefore, could spare roughly 13.4 Mkm² of land.
3. Integrate land and marine food systems: Red meat produced in unsustainable ways consumes large amounts of land, water, and feed, and emits significant greenhouse gases. Seafood and seaweed are sustainable, nutritious alternatives. Seaweed, for example, needs no freshwater and absorbs atmospheric carbon.
Responsible aquaculture—focusing on low-impact species like mussels and seaweed-derived products—can reduce pressure on land.
The authors recommend:
Replacing 70% of unsustainably produced red meat with sustainably sourced seafood, such as wild or farmed fish and molluscs. Doing so would spare 17.1 Mkm² of land currently used for pasture and livestock feed.
The proposed measures combined would also:
Contribute to emission reduction efforts by mitigating roughly 13 Gt of CO2-equivalent per year through 2050.
Co-benefit biodiversity by improving habitat quality and ecosystem functioning, and avoiding the conversion of remaining natural ecosystems to cropland.
Help the world community achieve its commitments in several international agreements, including the three Rio Conventions (climate, biodiversity and desertification), the Sustainable Development Goals and others, by coordinating action among the Rio Conventions.
The authors call for the UN’s three Rio conventions – UNCCD, CBD and UNFCCC–to unite around shared land and food system goals and encourage the exchange of state-of-the-art knowledge, track progress and streamline science into more effective policies, all to accelerate action on the ground.
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